What Love Looked Like When She Looked At Me
by Odyssomai
Summary: "And when the Son of the Desert bleeds love, the Sun will take pity. Distraught by his mourning, the Moon shall bear him a daughter, and on the first eclipse after her birth, she shall return that love to him."
1. Chapter 1

A bit confusing at first, but this is more of a prologue. Reviews are appreciated!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

 **Meanings:**

 **Koishii: Beloved**

 **Tenrai: Divine**

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Gaara stared at the raven-haired girl whose eyes were locked on the expanse of darkness veiling over Sunagakure. Her lips were pursed in deep thought before she turned her head to him, acknowledging his presence. An amused laugh escaped her when she saw the confused look etched on his face.

"Was it not written in the sand that you shall find me here when the Sun and the Moon forgo their rule to be the lovers they once were, and in that reckless abandon, the only light you'll see is that of the girl whose blood once tainted your hands?" She spoke, the mocking glint in her eyes visible even in the obscurity of the night.

"You? The daughter born of the eclipse?" He questioned suspiciously, taking caution in every step he took towards the girl sitting on the edge of a marbled fountain.

She smirked at his words, her fingertips making ripples on the water as she gently caressed the stagnant liquid. She stood up when he had reached her, inching her face close to his.

"I am honoured to be known by you, Kazekage-sama." She whispered, but in the silence of the night, the mischief in her voice was flagrant.

His face remained impassive at her advance, making her wrinkle her nose distastefully, irked by his aloofness.

"You do not believe me?" She asked, her tone dripping with false sweetness. "Is it because you find my words genuinely questionable or—" She lifted her hand and lightly traced the character for love that ironically scarred his forehead. "Do you still feel guilty for taking a life that belonged to the heavens?"

Answering her with reticence, she looked at him smugly before sitting back down.

"I will give you no reason to excuse the crimes done by the monster that I was—"

"And still you welcome me with doubt?" She interrupted, raising an eyebrow in provocation.

He closed his eyes briefly, willing himself not to lose his temper.

"We did not meet under the best circumstances, but now we do under a better one. I ask you for forgiveness, not as the former Jinchuuriki stained by your blood, but as Sabaku no Gaara—the Kazekage of Sunagakure."

"I must say, I thought you would be more surprised to see me again." She smiled up at him, extending a hand to beckon him closer.

"I am." He acquiesced.

She rolled her eyes at his short response and his refusal to take her hand that was still hanging in the air. Seeing as he will make no move to make physical contact, she tugged on his wrist, pulling him down to sit beside her.

"You certainly do not make a very big show of it." She scoffed.

"Did you know of the prophecy when you had met me then?" Gaara asked, ignoring the disdain lacing her words.

She bit down her bottom lip as if uncertain whether to answer him or not. More of the evening's serenity enveloped the two as her fingers found the back of his hand, lightly tracing circles on it. Gaara flinched at the contact, earning him a glare from the girl's grey eyes. He returned the scowl, but placed his hand back to her reach.

Pleased, she nodded.

"Yes, which is why I let you kill me for I knew that I will not stay dead, at least not by your hands, _Koishii_." She grinned, nudging him slightly on the shoulder when she noticed his breath hitch at the affectionate term.

"You approached with such confidence I wanted to extinguish your light before you even spoke." He admitted candidly as he began to reminisce their first encounter.

"And you had been so lonely that I wanted to give you that light, you need not ask." She said sadly. The mournful look that adorned her face tugged at his heart slightly. He shook his head as if in doing so, he could shake the discomfort swelling in his chest as well.

"My sand recoiled when it made contact with your blood." He stated matter-of-factly, clueless as to how he should react to the sudden kindness of her words.

"Ah, yes." She agreed, as if she had only just realized. "It was excessive bleeding that had caused my death, not the infamous Sand Coffin that crushed your enemies into fragments of flesh."

"I thought of it as a momentary lapse of control."

"Ha!" She snorted, her initial confidence returning. "That was your sand faltering in recognition."

She steadied her gaze at the sky that was being adorned by a ring of light that displayed the sun reuniting with the moon, just as she and Gaara were.

"Thousands of years they waited, and now the world will bear witness to the union that signified life and death." She said quietly before turning to Gaara. "How is it that you knew where to look for me?"

"You wanted to be found." He said simply. Their eyes locked; Gaara swallowed when she nibbled on her bottom lip, seemingly contemplating what to say. They were full and crimson, in full contrast to the paleness of her complexion.

She tugged down on the strap of her dress, exposing her collar bone, and on it was the same Kanji of love marring Gaara's forehead. She took his hand, allowing him to make contact with the mark that dictated their fate. His fingers trembled as he tenderly grazed a finger on the red scar.

 _"And when the Son of the Desert bleeds love,"_ She recited as if she were reading from a book. _"The Sun will take pity. Distraught by his mourning, the Moon shall bear him a daughter, and on the first eclipse after her birth, she shall return that love to him."_

Gaara's breath quickened, remembering the first time he had known of the prophecy.

Before leaving for Konoha after his rescue from The Akatsuki, Sakura had approached him, giving him a note entrusted to her by Chiyo-baasama in case she did not make it to give it to him instead. It instructed him to go to the abandoned home she had once shared with Sasori when he was a child, and to look for a chest tucked away in her old work room. Though confused, Gaara did as he was told.

He found the old trunk covered with dust, and on it was a small note that read _"To Gaara, let your blood be the key."_ which made no sense to him because it wasn't even locked in the first place. Frowning, he opened it and saw that it was filled with sand. He outstretched his hand towards the grains but they remained still, adding more to his confusion. The sand that usually attended to his bidding remained motionless.

Reminded by the instruction of the note, Gaara grabbed a kunai from the small weapons pouch strapped on his thigh, and sliced his palm. It took a great amount of control for him to stop the chakra-infused sand inside his gourd from bursting out and blocking the dagger from making contact with his skin.

He let a few drops of blood drip on the sand inside the chest, and just as he thought, the sand began stirring to life, snaking out of its container and on the floor it wrote the prophecy that would plague him for the years to come. Before dissipating, the sand rearranged itself, forming a name.

 _"Tenrai"_

Gaara's eyes widened as recognition almost made his knees fall over.

Long ago when he was yet to find the reason for his existence, a girl bearing the same name had fallen victim to one of his rampages. She approached him then as if she were looking for him her entire life. He remembered grey eyes twinkling at the sight of him; how she showed no hesitation to come to him, her strides so confident just as though she were meant to be nowhere else but beside him.

He threatened her, seething at her boldness when she introduced herself and the offended look she gave him when he claimed to have no knowledge of who she was, for he did not understood her talk about the Sun, the Moon, and Love when she had tried to explain it to him. Instead, he let Shukaku overthrow the sound of her voice that sent goose bumps on his skin, and let his sand wrap around the brazen girl.

He left her there, struggling to maintain her shallow breaths, but that night he would lose sleep, not just because of the Ichibi, but because of how his sand collapsed by its own before he could crush her completely as if it realized who it was harming and was disgusted at itself for causing her pain.

Now the same girl presented herself once again before him; the same grey eyes locking with his seafoam ones.

"Tenrai." He breathed, and at the mention of her name, she smiled at him affectionately.

"Just as the Moon now returns to the Sun, so have I to you. May you find in me all that you have lost." She whispered, cupping his cheek with one hand before placing her lips on his.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm having a lot of fun writing this, and like Gaara please bear with the unanswered questions for now because it's only the second chapter and I can't give away everything all at once. Reviews please!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

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It felt as if it were the first time his lungs had known the luxury of air; as if he had been suffocating his whole life, and at the soft caress of her lips on his, he was finally allowed to breathe. Inside of him, he could feel his heart rebelling against his rib cage, as though it had swelled a few sizes larger at the intimate collision of his mouth against that of the divinity sitting in front of him. But before he could permit himself to want more, he stood up, backing away a few steps as he did so.

Disappointed at his resistance, Tenrai ran a hand on her hair and scowled at Gaara who was staring at her with wide eyes.

"You receive me with such defiance, I shall pray for the rulers of the sky that favour you so much to set aside their adoration and punish you greatly." She scoffed, tugging the strap of her dress back up to cover the scar that coupled Gaara's.

The Kazekage remained silent in spite of her disdain, making her sigh. She closed the distance between them but remained a few inches away for it would once again stir up her ire should he turn from her another time.

"I know of the questions that flood your mind, _Koishii_. In your eyes, I see everything." She murmured as their gazes fastened.

"Then answer them." He demanded coldly.

Heaving out another heavy breath, her forehead knotted; her eyes, forlorn. "Do you not trust the forces of the Universe that had brought you here to me, and I to you?"

Gaara wanted to say yes, in the deepest wells of his heart, he did. For in the vastness of the desert—the world—unbeknownst even to himself, the moment he saw the ring of light that had signified the awaited union of the star-crossed lovers of heaven, he had no second thoughts of abandoning his work and falling prisoner to the pull of fate that had led him to the girl bearing the promise of love.

But he chose to respond with the absence of words, making distrust the only thing evident on his face. She was the girl he had killed years ago, yet remained alive; the girl representing the other half of the prophecy, that much he knew. For what reason did that prophecy exist, though? Surely, those that belonged to the celestial realm had better things to do than to birth a prognostication only because they pitied him? So much of the world has not known of love, so why was she only being given to him?

"Certainly I am not the only one who has anticipated the moment when I can finally belong to you?" Tenrai asked, sadness still in her voice.

Gaara shut his eyes, wanting to shield himself from her sorrow. For a brief minute, only the stillness of the night can be heard.

"Tell me who you are, your purpose." He said through gritted teeth.

Tenrai slowly lifted a hand to his face, testing if he would cringe away from her. Relief waved over her when she saw that he would not.

"I was not born of conventional methods." She began. "I was placed under the care of an old poet. One night, when the Moon glowed at its fullest, she awoke and the need to write was so dire she did not even waste a second to look for parchment; she ended up writing the words of the prophecy on her sheets. Once written, she heard the echo of an infant's cry, and when she looked for the source of the sound, she found me nestled on a Victoria plant, floating on the shallow waters of the lake near her home.

"I do not bear all knowledge as you may assume. I did not know your face or your name. Neither was I aware of how to find you, but when I did—" Tenrai gazed at him lovingly, and Gaara knew that simply through that look in her eyes, even his absolute defense would crumble and fall worshiping at her feet. "I wanted to ask where you have been that was so important that you chose not to look for me when the reason I exist was because you do."

"But then I killed you." Gaara said monotonously, making Tenrai laugh melodically as he broke the romantic mood she was setting.

"Yes, yes. But then you killed me." She repeated, the laughter still ringing in her words.

"Do you take pleasure in being murdered?" Gaara asked, looking at her strangely.

Tenrai smirked and leaned closer to whisper on his ear. "Only by your hands."

Gaara pulled away from her, sighing in frustration. "The only thing you've done is give me answers that open doors to more questions."

"Unlike you, I do not argue with the will of the gods. The fact remains that tonight the world is witnessing the first eclipse after eighteen years—eighteen years after my birth. And it is you that the Sun and the Moon has returned me to." She pointed out.

"Then tell me, what comes with your return?"

Tenrai placed a hand under her chin, mockingly posing as if she were pondering something deeply. "Ahh, that is the real question here, isn't it?"

"Are you saying that you do not know?" Gaara scoffed.

With her lack of response, Gaara's frown deepened.

"Tenrai." He said her name dangerously. Along with the warning in his voice, Tenrai's temper began to flare. She did not take a liking to being spoken to so callously.

"I am merely your counterpart, Gaara; we both form the augury. I have done my part of returning, now let the deities dictate the aftermath." She snapped, but as the troubled look on his face remained, her features softened.

Gaara's face contorted in anguish at the sight of the girl standing before him as the riddle of their bond pestered his mind. Was there no answer but the will of the gods if he asked why it had sounded so familiar when she spoke his name for the first time? Why allow her to cross his path then just to have her blood on his hands? Why permit her to show him her light only now when he needed it so long ago? And why is his heart so willing to surrender to this mysterious child of the divine when he knew the repercussions of submitting to love?

"What is stopping you from taking what is yours?" Tenrai slowly wrapped her arms around Gaara's waist, looking up at his still distraught expression.

"The doubt whether it will stay or not, regardless if it is mine." He answered as if he were in pain.

" _Koishii_ " She cooed for him to look at her so he did. "I have waited far too long to restore in you the love that has you marked."

"And I, longer!" Gaara bellowed, and suddenly his face was only inches away from her, his lips hovering over her own. Tenrai closed her eyes as his heavy breathing fanned across her. "Is love not cruel even when it has returned, when it should not have left to begin with?" He murmured.

"Maybe so."

"Then why should I accept you?"

"Because you cannot be without me."

For a short moment, it was only their eyes that spoke. Gaara pulled away from her embrace and began to walk away. Tenrai stared at the back of his head as his footsteps echoed throughout the vicinity.

He stopped, and turned to look at her.

Without saying a word, Gaara extended a hand.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** A huge thanks to those who reviewed! I know I started this story thrusting Tenrai and the prophecy into you without a clear background but as the story goes, all will gradually be answered. I love and appreciate hearing your input so don't hesitate to leave some.

 **Disclaimer** : I do not own Naruto

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The way back to the Kazekage tower had been silent. Tenrai would occasionally run her thumb softly on the back of Gaara's hand, keeping her hold firm as she listened to the sand crunching beneath their feet while they walked. She looked at the man beside her, raking her eyes over his features. His shaggy hair was gently being caressed by the crisp desert wind; his lips, turned down slightly in a small frown, making her breathe out a faint sigh.

She was no fool; it would be naive to think that Gaara, of all people, would so easily welcome her with open arms. Considering the life he's had, it would surprise her more if he jumped into trusting divine intervention without question, but that didn't mean she wasn't disheartened by the coldness in his demeanour. She did, however, appreciate that in his own way, he was allowing her to make up for the time that they were not permitted to have.

Noticing the knot on his forehead deepening as he took refuge in the solace of his thoughts, she halted her steps. Gaara turned to look at her questioningly, and saw her gazing at the sky.

"It's almost time." She whispered.

Gaara followed her line of sight; the halo of light providing soft illumination throughout the stretch of the night was slowly breaking form.

"Do you know of the story behind the love that transpired between the Sun and the Moon?" Tenrai asked, not breaking her stare away from the aureole.

"I am aware of it, but whether it is the truth I heard, I cannot say for certain."

"How disappointed I am, Kazekage-sama. The prevailing rulers of the Earth's atmosphere have sanctified your fate, and yet you claim to lack knowledge of the validity of their affair!" Tenrai huffed, letting go of his hand, and crossing her arms beneath her chest, mimicking Gaara's signature mannerism.

Once more, a scowl graced the red-head's face. The nerve of this girl to make a mockery out of him, he thought.

"The absolute beings that you speak of owed me no miracle, and I do not remember asking them for one, so why they bestowed such thing upon me escapes my understanding. I have no interest in matters that transcend my own realm, especially if I have no way to legitimize the ensuing of those events." Gaara flared, his words dripping with acid, but his retort seemed to have no effect on the girl accusing him of being ignorant. Instead, smugness curled on her lips.

"And that is why I'm here." She smirked. "To correct such uninteresting way of thinking."

Gaara opened his mouth to contrast her statement, but was silenced when the shine of the eclipse reflected on her eyes, and a look of far-off wonderment seemed to cloud her vision.

"Long ago, the world had been flat, and only the Moon governed the sky along with the stars that served as combatants for the goddess of the night." She started, and Gaara mused how the words that flowed from her lips sounded as if she were reciting poetry. "You see, the Moon was greatly enigmatic, and for the mischief she so often caused, the Creator had entrusted upon her the arduous task of overseeing the world He had shaped, hoping to instill discipline. But when wars waged, and humans turned against each other, destroying the terrene expanse so greatly treasured by Him, the Moon was enraged. Seeing how the discord stemming from the hate of those He created caused terrible pain to the Creator, the Moon took it upon herself to punish the humans who evoked on Him such misery.

"As blades clashed, and humanity, lost, the clouds parted; the stars, like never before, all scattered throughout the night, filling the tremendous stretch of the firmament with their light. And it would have been a lovely sight, had the moon not been burning a brilliant red, as if she had soaked up all the blood that was shed in battle."

"This is not the happiest of tales, I presume?" Gaara spoke, interrupting her reverie with derision.

"I suppose not." Tenrai agreed thoughtfully, ignoring his sarcasm. "But it is the most beautiful one."

Surprised that she was not baited to engage in another quick banter, clearing his throat, Gaara urged her to continue.

"Noticing the eerie form that heaven had taken, those in battle slowly paused from their onslaught, shifting their attention on the crimson orb pulsing with rage as it hung above. Murmurs of confusion and fear erupted through the crowd when a melodic voice thundered across the battlefield, silencing the rumbles coming from the men.

' _You fools_!' The Moon screeched, the assemblage of bodies all stiffening for they have never heard something so divine, yet so frightening at the same time. ' _How dare you mere mortals assume that you have the right to claim possession of the Earth so savagely! Your pathetic existence is nothing but a borrowed privilege that I will now reclaim._ '

As fear echoed throughout the huddle of shinobis, all grasping their weapons with trembling fingers as they readied for defense against the mysterious entity, the Moon scoffed at the sight before her. It was beyond her how the Creator could bestow so much adoration to these miscreants when all they have done is wreak havoc whilst continuously being ruled by misplaced intentions.

' _Until a light comes forth that shall rival mine, you will live and die in darkness, just as you have been blinded by your hate_.' The Moon declared, seething, until her scarlet hue dissipated, and the world was bathed in nothing but pitch-black."

Tenrai paused, pursing her lips as she looked at Gaara. "I imagine much of your life has been without the light of the Moon for a long time."

"Did I provoke her ire as well? I have long put it behind me, but my past is certainly colored red with a lot of innocent blood."

Tenrai smiled sweetly with a playful glint in her eyes. "All is forgiven, and I am proof of your pardon."

Gaara wanted to roll his eyes at her arrogance. "Are you sure that you were not sent as my punishment?" He asked in contempt, making her laugh.

"I suppose both?" She said quietly, gently running a hand up his arm until her fingers found his soft, crimson hair. Grains of sand swirled at Gaara's feet, reacting either from his discomfort or anticipation, he wasn't sure. Physical contact still remained such a foreign thing to him. His eyes bore deeply into hers, as she gauged his response from her touch.

"My head still cannot grasp you fully." He admitted. "The night in which I've known the truth about you has yet to pass, yet—" A frustrated groan vibrated from his throat, and Tenrai soothingly smoothed the stray strands of hair protruding the tattoo on his forehead.

"Why do you touch me so familiarly?" Gaara took a hold of her hand, moving it away from his face but not letting go. "And why do I let you?"

"Because loneliness does not befit you, love." She smiled softly at him. "I do."

"I despise the way you speak in riddles." Gaara grunted, frowning at her.

"I find that you despise a lot of things."

The wind howled, and Tenrai's attention went back to the eclipse that was gradually losing structure.

"Sometimes I wonder if the cause of your easily detonated temper is because the Sun and the Moon extended so much of their favour that their knack for tantrums rubbed off on you." She teased.

Gaara ignored her impish remark. "Where exactly does the Sun fit in all this? If the Moon's light were to be rivalled, does that mean they began as enemies?"

"I'm glad you asked." She said with sudden excitement. "Shall we move on to my favourite part? How the Sun restored, not only the light of the Earth, but of the Moon as well."


End file.
